It’s goodbye Egypt, hello Japan

The political unrest in Egypt might have calmed down since the heady days of the Arab Spring, but the country is still a tough sell for travel companies. Cruises with scheduled visits to Alexandria and Port Said have had to discount fares to attract passengers, who are voting with their feet and staying away.
Costa, Europe’s largest cruise line, has already made a decision about next year’s itineraries. It has announced that, with the exception of its seven-night cruises from Sharm el Sheik on Costa Voyager, it is dropping all Egyptian ports from its 2012 brochures – and it says the decision was effectively made by its customers
Costa Pacifica’s 11-night cruises which had included Egypt are to be replaced by voyages which visit Turkey, Israel and Greece; Costa Mediterranea will divert to the Black Sea and, along with Costa Fortuna, to the Western Med, Lisbon and Casablanca.
Tunisia falls out of favour for the same reasons, and Costa Allegra, Costa Concordia and Costa Deliziosa will substitute calls at Cagliari, on Sardinia.
Further east, Japanese ports – dropped in the aftermath of the tsunami in March – are back on the agenda. Costa Classica leaves Shanghai next week for a four-day cruise visiting Fukuoka in Japan and Cheju in South Korea – the first of 12 cruises to Japan between now and October.
Next year the 1,300-passenger Classica will be replaced in the region by a refurbished Costa Victoria, with accommodation for almost 2,000. New ports of call will include Hososhima, the hot spring resort of Wakayama, Osaka and Yokohama.UPDATE: Oceania has also announced it has torpedoed a number of cruises which would have visited ports in Egypt and Tunisia in autumn next year. The 684-passenger Regatta will end its Mediterranean season earlier than originally planned, and now leaves Lisbon on September 11 to cross to New York.
From there, the ship will sail a series of cruises to New England and Canada before taking a 25-night voyage from New York to the Amazon in November 2012.